


Cold Feet, Warm Heart

by Meatball42



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:26:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22225591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: Jeanne-Marie is always cold. Her friend Smiles is sick of hearing about it.
Relationships: Original Character(s) & Original Alien Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6
Collections: Exchanges After Dark Birthday Bash 2020





	Cold Feet, Warm Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Niuq](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niuq/gifts).



> Thanks to my friends, who did their best on beta.
> 
> Niuq, I saw after writing this that the prompt was for a *comfy* blanket, specifically, and this is not that. So, like. Sorry I guess? But you'll love the story anyway, I promise.

It really, really sucks being cold all the time. 

If you live in a place that has winter, it's impossible to avoid. On Jeanne-Marie's planet, it’s winter pretty much all the time.

"It's literally summer," her friend Smiles says when she complains.

Jeanne-Marie glares at Smiles, who is wearing only a short-sleeved shirt.

"Ten degrees is not summer," she argues, stuffing her nose down into her scarf.

"Earthlings," Smiles mutters to eirself, shaking eir head.

Jeanne-Marie is technically an Earthling, in that her parents are from Earth, but she was born and raised on Nakvagach. She's never known a place warmer than this.

That doesn't mean she likes it.

But the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and around the summer solstice, Jeanne-Marie receives—in the mail—a cardboard box. In the box she finds something wrapped in crinkly paper, upon which has been scanned an image of a mountain range.

It's unexpected, and Jeanne-Marie knows to take care with possible cultural miscommunications. The return address is from Smiles' housing pod, so Jeanne-Marie waits until their next class together and asks Smiles what that's about.

"It's a holiday gift?" Smiles says, eir usual confident demeanor somewhat askew. "You exchange gifts around the holidays, right?"

"Not all of them, but I don't mind. Just wasn't sure what was going on."

"Well, did you open it?"

"I'll do it tonight," Jeanne-Marie promised. "Should I get you something in return?"

Smiles rolls eir eyes. "It's sort of a gift for me, too."

"Be that way," Jeanne-Marie says, gently shoving one of Smiles' spare limbs.

That night, she opens the gift after dinner. It’s a blanket. A sort of uncomfortable one, even. It isn't scratchy, but the material is stiff and unforgiving. Jeanne-Marie wouldn't have known what it is without the receipt, which is tucked into the wrapping paper. When she lays it down over her legs and turns on the Quidditch game on the holovision, it barely bends around her body.

But a half hour later, Jeanne-Marie realizes that her feet aren't cold. Her toes aren't tingling. She doesn't feel the urge to go put on a second pair of socks, the way she does during the summer.

It’s amazing.

She sleeps with the strange, almost metallic blanket on her bed that night, and has the deepest sleep she can remember.

The next day at school, she practically skips up to Smiles. 

"Can I hug you?" she asks excitedly.

"Sure?" Smiles replies, rearranging eir limbs in preparation.

Jeanne-Marie throws her arms around eir torso carefully and snuggles up with a sigh of happiness. "Thank you so much for my gift! It's perfect!" she declares.

Smiles hugs her back, careful with eir pincers. "Does this mean you'll stop complaining about the weather?"

"Do you know somewhere I can get boots like that blanket?"

Smiles sighs. "There's always something with you, isn't there?"


End file.
